CURRENT MISSION

To start to act like a true world citizen and not just a disconnected traveler, EVERYWHERE i go. Also, find a higher calling than I've been living.

ABOUT ME

Let's do something unorthodox today! I like pushing my barriers. Shoot me a message, interesting traveler, because I would love to do that with you!

2012 EDITION.
I seem to have found a home after years of vagabonding about the globe, spent a lot of time in East Asia, the Middle East, Central America, all over the States, and all over Europe, where I lived for a time. Spent a lot of time hitchhiking about, working undocumented jobs in foreign lands, meeting people in cities and villages abroad. Knew that if I lived in the States again (family is a strong magnet pulling us home) it would have to be San Francisco Bay Area or Austin Texas. SF is where my sister lives, so here I am. Nature is amazing here. Its simply showing off. And you can learn so much from all the people living here. America's most progressive metropolis, a land of thinkers, and the hope is that they'll challenge me. I love going to a soul dance party on Saturday, hiking the redwood hills of Oakland on Sunday, attending a conference of futurists on Monday, seeing lectures at the Modern Art museum on Tuesday, eating great Eithiopian food on Wednesday, buying fresh local flowers from the farmers market in the park on Thursday and visiting my cousin an his new daughter on Friday before walking down to the bay to go sailing at sunset. If my life sounds great and exciting I assure you, its mostly because of where I live.

I love intellectual stimulating people that are passionate about something or many things. I want to learn from them. I love the diversity of cultures the world has to offer. I WILL ASK YOU A LOT OF CURIOUS QUESTIONS. ABOUT YOUR LIFE BUT ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE FROM, THE POLITICS, HISTORY, NATURE, ECONOMY, CULTURE ETC. THEREIN. BE PREPARED FOR THAT!!! This applies weather you are from Azerbaijan or Anaheim, Paraguay or Pensacola.

I can be silly, though I try to come off as a taciturn, serious person, its a serious challenge. I love music of all walks. A lot of people say that. I really get excited about variety though.

2009 additions...
CURRENTLY WANDERING EAST ACROSS EUROPE INTO ASIA, VISITING OLD FRIENDS, MAKING NEW ONES...
Loves to talk to everyone he meets and writes down everything they say in the "black Book", hoping to experiment with writings eventually and maybe publish them.
Little kids are the coolest thing ever, I work with them and on the road I occaisionally meet one and that makes me happy.

2007 addition...
YOUR CS AMERICAN IN VALENCIA!!! Stuff: I am very tall. I want to get a means of subsistance that I love doing now. I hate cold weather much more than hot weather, given the choice. I love good Italian food and blame my mother for this. I love a good book and my books to read list is hundreds of titles long, sigh.

PHILOSOPHY

try to be nice and courteous and think of others with a big dose of empathy. this is a relatively new practice for me. I love it though. My living arrangement helps. We care about each other and do things not out of obligation so much as concern.

I am big into just diving into things, both long term and short term, and trying them out. the only way i get to know something is through immersion. Languages, food, people, nature, whatever... this is why i am travel obsessed, but this year i have learned that it is better to have quality selected journeys than to try to see and do everthing in this lifetime. You will only make yourself tired and not really understand anything if you try to squeeze it ALL in. Oh look, I've gotten opininated!

I want to write to bring cultures closer together in terms of understanding...

I am very much without personal philosophy. This is both a point of personal pride and lament. This aside, I still feel you should generally do right by people, for what its worth.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

NEW status:
Been unable to host for years really after loving to do it so much in Spain and Philly, mainly due to living situations. Am in a CS friendly (and how!) household again, and a lovely household to share at that, in an old Victorian flat with a great view onto nature yet in the heart of the city, and can't wait to host again and pay back the hospitality I've received from couchies and strangers and friends around the nation and the world over the past 5 plus years!

SF, the home of CS, has a big and vibrant and interesting CS community and I enjoy meeting other community members and travelers via its meetups and events when I can! We could attend events together if it presents itself.

OLD status:
I am merely a lowly couchsurfer and hoster as of now, but ould love to get more involved, yet I find myself saying this about everything that interests me.

Living situation in Berkeley, CA kept me from hosting this spring, hope to have a new place in the Bay Area in 2010 where I may do so again, it is important to me.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have 2 best friends in Europe that I acquired since I met here. One is a Dutchwoman I met when she hosted me through CS, the other is a stray Kiwi she scooped up and took in that same week from a hostal. I love them and I would risk alot in order to look out for them and I likely would not have met people like them otherwise and they have both enriched my life immensely so I guess I am indebted alot to this project.

Interests

NEW FOR 2012:
SCIENCE!!!! I've become a serious geek since this Spring and science is all I talk about. Okay, history still holds half my attention. But seriously, you should visit and we can talk about science and its applications. A lot. Now go, look up the Singularity. Ish is mind-blowing.

Also, the cooking thing has increased alot since moving back here. With this amazing kitchen and the great market ACROSS THE STREET I'm cooking daily and trying new things all the time (thanks internet!) and getting pretty damn good! Come, we'll cook together, maybe something from your homeland/area.
Also I'm recently obsessed with flower arrangements. I'm really masculine like that.

This could go on forever, so just 5... 1. The outdoors, getting away to a small town or mountain village or isolated beach and walking around and breathing in the air endlessly. Plus occaisionally running around at top speed. 2. Talking about books and philosophy and learning to listen better the whole time, especially when it´s in a different language I´m learning about or just meeting. 3. City archaeology. Looking for clues to the past and the present everywhere you walk, listening to the music pouring out from windowns and other sounds, and taking along a bottle por la calle to share with other explorers and residents. 4. Cooking, and letting all the tastes and smells of the world wash over me. I really do like trying everything and usually enjoy eating it too. Food is so important. 5. Beautiful people with great smiles and eyes, not in a predatory way, but just realizing that they make my day light up like the sun.

• arts
• culture
• books
• modern art
• dancing
• dining
• italian food
• cooking
• running
• walking
• partying
• flowers
• politics
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• scuba diving
• sailing
• teaching
• history
• languages
• science
• hitchhiking
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Lately its non fiction. Like short stories, sometimes you don't need more that 20 pgs. to get a point across.

I LOVE ANYTHING OLD. Film, music, visual art, etc. I live in the past artistically, (I should focus more on the cutting edge I suppose (think more of science for that)). But I just love old stuff. Hosted a CS 1961 party in DC, had a blast. Want to host a 1928 party now. Everyone dress up like the Fitzgeralds.

Wanted to be a director as a kid, still love good cinema, though I think my society is oversaturated with it and much of it bad at that. Loved 70´s American studio fare when I was younger. Trying to get away from the stylized in favor of the more substantive now. Eternal Sunshine reasonated with me alot for a movie that came out in the past 5 years. Books, I like histories and classics alot. Really into broadening my scope as far as literature goes to foreign cultures though I find them difficult to understand at times. 3 of my favorite books would be All the President´s Men, Native Son, and most recently I really enjoyed Trainspotting... Really feeling the Shins the week that I write this like an obsessive adolescent would his favorite band. Big into 70´s early punk thanks to living in my house in Philadelphia. Always had a connection to American soul, funk, R and B and hip hop even if I am not a music expert. Get turned on to music, film, books and ideas in strange and invigorating ways. Its nice to be excited as such.

Also, JOY DIVISION JOY DIVISION JOY DIVISION!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I fell in love once. Maybe not amazing from the outsider´s perspective, but talk about life affirming... also I was a teacher.

Oh and hitchhiking from Chicago to San Francisco in 4 days. That was special. Actually hitchhiking in general.

Teach, Learn, Share

If you ever get a month off from school or leave a job and are not starting a new one real soon or just got out of a relationship that was very limiting take off for the Camino de Santiago, or some other path that enables you to walk through some strange land and see it from the ground up, warts and all. Stay with it through the first week of blisters and I imagine you will be forever happy with your choice. H

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Mexico, Morocco, Portugal, Taiwan

Countries I’ve Lived In

Spain, Syrian Arab Republic, United States

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